Again, I feel introversion is being conflated with social anxiety. I’m totally fine with and even enjoy being around people, I just need a lot of alone time to recharge my battery. Though people see my confidence in social situations and never believe I’m introverted.
Yeah, as someone that is an introvert and had social anxiety, the mixup does get a little annoying. Being an introvert with social anxiety when growing up was a absolute nightmare in my experience. Especially because I wanted to socialize but couldn’t bring myself to do it. It’s a constant back and forth between “I need alone time” and “I wish I could talk to people” and it made me hate myself for being introverted. Luckily I’ve managed to mostly get over it as I’ve gotten older and now I’m happy with being an introvert. Now I’m in your boat and most people don’t even realize I’m introverted until they get to know me more personally.
That was the same for me. I didn’t realise I had high anxiety especially around people interaction. I just went with what people told me, that I’m introverted. It took me way too long to figure this out and I only did so because my anxiety was getting worse and about more things. Once I was on medication I realised holy shit, I needed this like 20 years ago!
I’m now able to join clubs, meet in large groups. But like you it’s now a choice. I generally do the social thing then leave or take some time out when batteries are low.
And there are even more layers to this. How much do you know and like the people you are interacting with? How comfortable are you in the setting/circumstances? How interesting are the activities/conversations?
Again, I feel introversion is being conflated with social anxiety. I’m totally fine with and even enjoy being around people, I just need a lot of alone time to recharge my battery. Though people see my confidence in social situations and never believe I’m introverted.
conflated
Thank you!
Yeah, as someone that is an introvert and had social anxiety, the mixup does get a little annoying. Being an introvert with social anxiety when growing up was a absolute nightmare in my experience. Especially because I wanted to socialize but couldn’t bring myself to do it. It’s a constant back and forth between “I need alone time” and “I wish I could talk to people” and it made me hate myself for being introverted. Luckily I’ve managed to mostly get over it as I’ve gotten older and now I’m happy with being an introvert. Now I’m in your boat and most people don’t even realize I’m introverted until they get to know me more personally.
That was the same for me. I didn’t realise I had high anxiety especially around people interaction. I just went with what people told me, that I’m introverted. It took me way too long to figure this out and I only did so because my anxiety was getting worse and about more things. Once I was on medication I realised holy shit, I needed this like 20 years ago!
I’m now able to join clubs, meet in large groups. But like you it’s now a choice. I generally do the social thing then leave or take some time out when batteries are low.
And there are even more layers to this. How much do you know and like the people you are interacting with? How comfortable are you in the setting/circumstances? How interesting are the activities/conversations?